Pharmacy Sues DEA for Seizing Its Drugs

While some pharmacies have their drugs stolen by robbers, a pharmacy in Tampa, Florida, had its drugs taken by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

West Chase Compounding Pharmacy filed a lawsuit against the DEA, the Justice Department, and Attorney General Eric Holder for seizing its drugs and disrupting its ability to conduct business, according to the Tampa Tribune. The pharmacy is also seeking a restraining order so that it can continue operating.

When the DEA arrived at the pharmacy last week, agents removed the pharmacy’s DEA registration, which allows stores to sell controlled substances, according to court filings. The agents also gave pharmacy employees a letter full of inaccuracies, according to the pharmacy’s restraining order filing.

“The basis for DEA’s action was not that the pharmacy posed some imminent harm or threat to the public,” court filings state. “No, the DEA’s justification was that a membership interest in the pharmacy was transferred some 19 months before without its approval. The DEA acted unlawfully, outside its statutory and legal authority, and contrary to its prior interpretation of its own regulations. Further, the DEA violated the pharmacy’s constitutional right to due process by circumventing its administrative process.”

According to legal filings, the pharmacy approved the sale of a membership interest by a man named Stephen Caddick to Renier Gobea, but the DEA’s letter to the pharmacy claimed Gobea sold the membership interest to himself.

The pharmacy is arguing that it sells certain medications that are not commercially available to patients, causing them to suffer from the DEA’s actions, according to the Tampa Tribune.

Pharmacy employees believe the DEA’s actions will likely force the business to close, according to the Tampa Tribune.